Gac Filipaj, a Columbia University janitor, recently graduated with honors with a bachelor's degree in the classics. (Photo by Michael DiVito/Columbia University)

Filipaj, an ethnic Albanian from the former Yugoslavian republic of Montenegro, wanted a college degree. He earned an Ivy League education through hard work and determination.

What makes Filipaj’s story unique? He works as a janitor at Columbia University in the City of New York. He recently graduated with honors with a bachelor’s degree in the classics. His dream took almost 20 years—seven years to learn English and 12 years of studies.

In case you think Filipaj’s dream ends here, it doesn’t. He hopes to pursue a master’s degree and maybe a doctorate.

In a very small way, Filipaj’s story mirrors my dream for JANSON Communications. We both pursued our dreams and never lost sight of them while overcoming hardships. Filipaj started his studies in 1993; I started JANSON Communications in 1997. We defied many obstacles and thrived through the years!

Why? I’m not going to speak for Filipaj but can for JANSON—its devoted and hard-working staff. They always seek to meet people at their points of need. We make our client’s problems our problems.

JANSON’s incredibly talented and hard-working staff members meet these challenges. JANSON offers a collaborative, adaptive and creative work environment. It encourages employees to use their strengths to seek creative solutions to our clients’ strategy, communications and branding needs.

Just like Filipaj’s academic career will continue, so will JANSON’s. We’re not resting on our laurels because of a successful 15 years.

We will be working hard—just like Filipaj on his master’s—to be more than a communications company in the Washington Metro Area. We want to be the communications company in the metro area.

It’s busy with a purpose…. increasing value and trust to our clients.

JANSON Communications keeps busy because we see our client’s problems as our problems to solve. That applies whether we…

• Are helping to pull off a successful 10th Anniversary Program Executive Office Soldier event at Fort Belvoir, Va.,
• Successfully pitching a story to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for our Distributed Common Ground System-Army client, or
• Incorporating our branding initiatives at Army Materiel Command.

It’s not busy for the sake of being busy. That is busy-ness, which is akin to spinning your wheels or walking on a treadmill. It looks like you are achieving great things, but you aren’t. The Greek philosopher Socrates once said,

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”

Looking back over JANSON’s 15 years, our success comes through thinking through, planning and carrying out successful initiatives for our clients. We are busy because our clients expect a lot from us.

We expect even more from ourselves. We don’t have time with busy-ness. Success only comes through thoughtful and thorough evaluations of our client’s needs and pursuing the successful course of action.

Playing it safe is easy and boring. I believe it keeps a person from truly living.

How do you know what you are capable of unless you accept a challenge and willing to compete?

President Theodore Roosevelt eloquently expressed these sentiments at a speech at the Sorbonne in Paris:

 

 

President Theodore Roosevelt (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

One of my staff members recently exhibited that. She sings in the Vienna Falls barbershop chorus. The other weekend they participated in the Sweet Adelines International Blue Ridge 14 Competition in Greensboro, N.C. Vienna Falls prepared for two years to get ready for this competition. They put themselves out there. They confronted a challenge and competed.

They won!

Let me share with you two other examples of confronting a challenge from popular media. The first is the story of Rudy and Notre Dame Football. I think everyone knows that one. If not, see the movie. Well worth your time. The second example comes from another staff member. He suggested a movie that similarly reflects Vienna Falls’ success. “Chops“ is a documentary of a Jacksonville, Fla., high school jazz band competing in the Essentially Ellington Competition at Jazz at Lincoln Center.  How’d they do? We’ll have to watch it.

Taking on challenges and competing is the attitude that has sustained JANSON Communications for 15 years. It will sustain us into the future. JANSON is not comfortable with sticking to what’s safe. Everyone at JANSON strives to achieve more.

I believe it’s not only prudent but also healthy to challenge ourselves with greater opportunities and challenges. A friend once told me, “When the ship of opportunity comes floating by, jump on it!” I look in the past to understand the present and see where I want to go in the future—one of hope and opportunity.

What challenges are you confronting?

“If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward,” Edison said.

Other successful people who persevered include Col. Harlan Sanders. He heard “no” 1,009 times before he heard his first yes from a franchisee. Ernest Hemingway rewrote A Farewell to Arms 39 times before being satisfied.

These men expected a lot from themselves. I expect a lot from myself. Time is a great opportunity to evaluate expectations, where you’ve been and where you want to be.

I started JANSON with three simple goals:

• Meeting people at their point of need;
• Understanding the complexity of their communications challenges; and
• Providing value with every deliverable.

Everyone at JANSON—myself included—is always looking for new opportunities to do something better, to add value, to go beyond what’s expected.

I recently shared with several expectations with my staff when helping our clients:

• Always anticipate a client’s questions,
• Overwhelm clients with good ideas, and
• Deliver with each engagement.

These are non-negotiable expectations. I believe everyone on the JANSON team meets them.

While doing a little reading recently, I came across an interesting blog about going beyond.

Blogger Craig Jarrow writes “Time Management Ninja.”  Several weeks ago, Craig published  “To Get Ahead, Do 21 Things That Others Don’t Do.” Craig does an excellent job of listing and explaining the 21.

A good blog makes one think. This one challenged me think about JANSON. What are three from the 21 that reflect my expectations?  Keeping to three was hard, but they are:

1. Have goals – You can’t get anywhere without knowing where you are and where you want to be.  I started JANSON with three goals. They’ve served JANSON well.

2. Dream big – You need to dream big to stretch beyond limitations. This is the only way to see what you can do. I have big dreams for JANSON, and a staff to achieve them.

3. Don’t quit – Quitting ensures failure. You can only succeed if you keep trying.

Meeting expectations and persevering is why JANSON has been and will be successful.

Are you moving forward or standing still? If the latter, how are you going to move forward?

One word describes the basis of preconceived notions:
Stereotype.

Three simple words, but how they limit us! They certainly limit me.

Successful people don’t let preconceived notions limit them in their professional endeavors. Jazz flugelhornist Chuck Mangione said it best: “I tend to not want to put labels or categories on the music, only because people come with preconceived ideas about what they’re going to hear, or won’t come for this reason.”

Why do we not want to try something? I’m sure there are various reasons. I suspect we would be hard-pressed to articulate it, so the common reason is “because.” I’ve used it.

“Because” is not an answer. It’s an excuse…an incredibly weak one. If we are to progress in anything, we need to get rid of the “becauses”…preconceived notions…stereotypes.

Let me offer a recent example.

I was shopping for new clothes to update my corporate wardrobe. I was outside BCBG, a trendy store that definitely wasn’t me. It caters to women younger and hipper than me.

However, the outfit on the mannequin in the store’s window caught my attention.

My first thought was how nice the outfit looked. My preconceived notion was it wouldn’t look nearly as good on me. Why? Because it’s not my style. The outfit was very attractive but also cutting edge. Not my style.

Being a CEO and conservative, I have this preconceived notion of what my professional wardrobe should be. I’d already hit my favorite stores and was happy with what I purchased.

There was no need for me to stop in.

Surprisingly, I did.

Two sales associates—much smaller and younger than myself—came to help. The ladies did their sales job well, pushing me to try on outfits I initially thought were not me. They definitely took me out of my comfort zone.

Despite my initial impressions, I liked what I saw in the mirror…mostly. About 60 percent of the outfits looked good on me, and I felt good about them.

The experience shattered my preconceived notion of this trendy store and its chic fashions. I walked out with more shopping bags than when I entered. I felt good about now being in the chic crowd—while still maintaining my conservative look.

I set my preconceived notions aside. I grew. Not all chic clothing is for me, but I now know some are.

We need to step out of our comfort zones, toss aside our preconceived notions and see what happens.

We may not feel comfortable and may not come away with something we like. There is one thing, however, we will experience…

Growth.

As writer and actor Ben Stein said, “It’s amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.”

What have you done lately to grow?

JFK’s coined quote was fitting at the time and still resonates today, “rising waters raise all ships.”  For me – this is about stretching myself and leveraging all of my strengths to accomplish my dreams while encouraging others to realize their potential and accept healthy challenges.

For organizations, communities, associations and even the family network – this is an incredible time we’re living in to rise up and successfully fulfill our professional and personal charters……. better, stronger and faster!    I love what Sam Horn (speaker and author) said recently, “people can’t jump onto your bandwagon if it’s parked in the garage!”

We have a multitude of resources available today right at our fingertips to put our word out globally, to make great things happen, to be compelling, to make a connection and, to make a difference!  Be a part of the rising waters and let’s help each other so when we look around – we observe a sea of ships sailing and succeeding!

Here is a list of the top trends in Digital Communications that we see gaining momentum:

1. Drop the ‘social’ as social business becomes business
2. Everyone should have a solid digital strategy: encouraging engagement and sharing through a content marketing strategy
3. Social is mobile!
4. Video and viral: YouTube is the second most used search engine in most countries
5. Content and information must flow freely and at all times, this is the ‘new now’
6. Motivate! Use gaming to motivate users to act and engage
7. Niche social networks like Pinterest and Instagram are exploding
8. Transparency and audience conversations
9. Seamless usage on all devices: smart phones, tablets and e-readers are all mobile computers

The key here is to know your audience! Know where they are and how they want to receive and utilize information. The alternative is to hide, to fail to engage and to produce nothing, which in the world we operate in today is no longer a viable option.

With the festivities and exhaustion that often is associated with the holidays, I try to find moments to step away and look at opportunities with a different lens – a lens that enables me to determine what needs to be done differently, how best to do it and with the optimism that strong visions are achievable.  Many find themselves on one side of the fence or the other – either the glass is half-full or half-empty.  Here’s an idea…….let’s toss the glass out the window, adapt to the situation, leave the past behind and truly press forward to those things which lie ahead!  Every situation, bad or good, is an opportunity to be seized.

From all of us at JANSON, we trust that 2012 will be the best year yet for you to achieve significant opportunities and that you will enjoy the journey along the way.

We count ourselves blessed to work with some of the most incredible customers! The organizations we support have missions on a global scale and we are honored to be their partners.  As we embrace the mission of each client, we collectively accomplish amazing things for them.

The year has been punctuated with more hours on flights than I spent in my office, but at the end of the day, I would not change a thing from 2011.  As we ring in the New Year – we will be off to the races once again!  When you have an extraordinary team and a group of clients that you consider “family” PLUS operate from a foundation of integrity, perseverance and passion – I’m convinced that just about anything is possible…2012 – Here we come!

I was honored to speak briefly at Final Salute Inc.’s program H.O.M.E. ribbon cutting this past Saturday for the first opening of a transitional house for homeless female Veterans and their children in Fairfax, VA.  Having never served in the U.S. military, it was my distinct honor to be a part of this special day and to be actively engaged in the mission of supporting our women Veterans. JANSON now has the opportunity to help ensure our female heroes are equipped and sustained to achieve what life has in store and I believe their best days are ahead of them.

Why female veterans?  Here are a few reasons:

• Of the 500 transitional housing programs for male veterans in the United States, a little over half can accept women.
• Over half of homeless female Veterans are single mothers and some facilities cannot accommodate children.
• Some female Veterans who have experienced Military Sexual Trauma (MST) may not be comfortable staying in co-ed facilities.
• There are affordable housing programs and temporary housing units available to all Veterans, but the waiting lists are long and some female Veterans have minor children for which they are responsible.

So – let’s all rally behind this effort or organization in support of those who have already given so much to our great nation, our Veterans and in particular, our Homeless Female Veterans.